Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999
From: The Wailers Reporter <danieln@...>


Some sad news to report, Joe Higgs passed away Saturday, December 18th. He
not only worked to develop many of reggae's greatests, but he himself was
one of the true fathers of reggae music. We're working on a tribute site
for Joe Higgs, and if any of you have any thing to share with others, we
would be more than happy to put them up.

The following biography graciously comes from Roger Steffens.

"Joe Higgs Passes at 59
by Roger Steffens

Los Angeles, 18 December 1999.
Jamaican singer Joe Higgs, known as "The Father of Reggae Music," passed away
this evening at 59 in a hospital in Los Angeles following several months of
treatment for cancer.

Higgs was hugely influential in the birth of the ska, rock steady and
reggae forms of Jamaican music, and was widely respected as a composer,
arranger and
performer, but perhaps most of all as a teacher. Among those he trained
were Bob Marley, Derrick Harriott, Peter Tosh, Bob Andy, the Wailing Souls
and Bunny Wailer.

One of the first local recording artists in Jamaica, his debut single, made
with partner Roy Wilson, was "Oh Manny Oh," and sold over 50,000 copies in
Jamaica in 1960. It led to his signing by Edward Seaga, who later became
Jamaica's Prime Minister during the 1980s. "He was my first manager,"
Higgs recalled shortly before his death, adding with a sly smile, "We
always got paid." Seaga arranged for Higgs to be booked in local shows
alongside Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson and other foreign stars.

In 1964 he recorded "There's A Reward For Me," for producer Coxson Dodd's
Studio
One, a song that became an instant classic of suffering and hope. Although
he claimed to have received no royalties from its sales, he was sanguine
about the fact, claiming "I realize that the only person can give me my
reward and what I'm entitled to is the Almighty."

It was in Higgs' Trench Town yard that the young Bob Marley received years
of private tutoring in vocal technique and stage craft from Higgs, years
before he began recording with his group, the Wailers. Marley later
admitted that "Joe Higgs was a genius," crediting him for his international
musical success.

In 1972, Higgs won the Tourist Song Competition with "Invitation to
Jamaica," whose prizes included a trip to New York, where he performed for
the first time.
The bouncy tune was uncharacteristic of his more normal roots sound, which
mixed rhythmic jazzy scat singing with heartfelt lyrics that expressed deep
political awareness and a keen sense of history and classical literature.
Songs like "So It Go" ("when you no have big friends") and "Freedom" kept
him near the top of the local charts.

In 1973, when founding member Bunny Wailer quit the Wailers, Higgs was
tapped to accompany his former students, Tosh and Marley, on an American
tour as opening act for Sly and the Family Stone. They played critically
acclaimed shows from New York and Boston to San Francisco, and were chief
among the first wave of reggae musicians who brought the music to U.S.
awareness.

In 1974, another set of former students, the Wailing Souls, joined with
Higgs briefly to form group called Atarra. But it was his allignment with
emerging superstar Jimmy Cliff, hot off his success in the landmark film
"The Harder They Come," that brought Higgs mainstream attention as Cliff's
bandleader and co-vocalist, often before huge crowds in venues like New
York's Central Park and Madison Square Garden. Opening each of Cliff's
shows, plus singing a pair of songs in the middle of Cliff's sets, Higgs
often received more attention than Cliff, and was eventually relegated to
background vocals only. Duets recorded at the time by Cliff and Higgs,
"Sound of the City" and "Sons of Garvey," remain
among the finest work ever recorded by either man.

His first solo album came out in the mid-'70s called "Life of
Contradiction," and featured jazz guitarist Eric Gale, solidifying Higgs'
reputation, as he often reminded audiences, as "the jazz connection for
Jamaican music. I like phrasing my own voice like an instrument."

In the compelling 1977 reggae documentary film "Roots Rock Reggae," Higgs
told director Jeremy Marre that "Reggae is a confrontational sound. Freedom
- that's what it's asking for. Acceptance - that's what it needs."

"Unity Is Power" followed in 1979. His 1983 single, "So It Go," which
called attention to the plight of the poor who have no mentors in high
places, caused Higgs political problems with the ruling party in Jamaica,
and he left for Los Angeles, where he lived in a self-imposed exile until
his death.

During the past 15 years, he had resumed his unofficial career as tutor and
mentor to a new generation of American-based reggae musicians, and
continued to tour the world, headlining festivals throughout North America
and Europe.

Later albums included 1990's "Blackman Know Yourself," backed by the Wailers
Band. The collection featured Joe's most famous composition, "Stepping
Razor,"
which had become a signature song for the 6-foot 4-inch Peter Tosh, and was
often mistakenly attributed to Tosh as its writer. "The give away line,"
the slightly built Higgs always told people, "is 'Don't you watch my size,
I'm dangerous.' Is no six-foot-something guy could write that!"

At the time of his death, he was working on an autobiography with this
writer, and had been working on a cross-cultural project recorded at U2's
studio in Dublin, to be titled "Green on Black," uniting Gaelic artists
like Sharon Shanon and Donal Luney with Higgs, in lengthy Irish-jazz-reggae
improvisations.

His final public performance was at Ashkenaz in Berkeley, CA on June 26. Born
June 3, 1940, Higgs leaves 12 children, several of whom are professional
musicians."

- Daniel & Seth Nelson